‘Prabowo, War Commander’

I arrived at the North alun-alun and the Kauman Agung Mosque for Prabowo’s visit with my heavily face-tattooed friend. He said he would wait by a tree nearby, lest the pious take offence to his tattooes.

A week before, the same friend had accompanied me to the gates of the Bantul stadium where the Presidential campaign erupted into violence between Prabowo and Jokowi supporters. It was reported that Prabowo supporters attacked houses, threw rocks at PDI-P supporters and set fire to a motorbike. Fearing a repeat of this, we were a little nervous as we approached the alun-alun.

Here are some snapshots of the evening event.

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Angie Bexleyis a Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at the Australian National University’s College of Arts and Social Sciences. She is also a co-founder of Culturekitchen foodlab.